26 Aug 2016: well, I was going to build a VP machine, but well, time has run away with me, and i've just had to admit, i'll never get to finish yet another project.
I am not looking for something or massive numbers of throughput, but i do want to get really nice results, and VP has a lot of benefits. This morning i talked with Marc from IMDES in Germany, and he gave me some details about it.. I've decided to go for the Jumbo which will take pcbs up to 430 x 230mm. The machine is being made to order, and i've paid my deposit. It should be ready to get shipped out in a month. This is a little bit of a adventure as these are not super well known but he seems very knowledgable, and sometimes you just have to take a risk... I'll post to this top message as it progresses!
3 September: construction is underway, hes got all his parts. These are not off the shelf machines, but it seems he shoudl be able to deliver well inside of what they promises. Certainly coudl have used this machien this week, as i had some difficult to solder inductors.
24 September: The unit is finished, and shipping via DHL. He said a month and its been sent inside that. Thats good.
25 sept. Gah. Shipping is by post!!! DHL is the post office in Germany and nice just paid a huge amount for mail. This really is dissappointing. They said DHL and it was abut 130Euro.. THat is what i woudl expect to pay for DHL express Courier. Not general airmail.
30 Sept: Got a tracking numer but it looks like its still in germany. Becoming very dis-satisified about this.. Seriusly this was a bad call for them to put this item in the post.. Fully expecting it to arrive smashed and un-usable.
4 October: Its arrived. The trackign still says its in germany.. Its come in without passign through customs, and me having to pay GST, which is very bizzare, as it worth well in excess of the GST threshold.
4 October: A bit later on in teh day.. Got it unpacked and setup.. Mmm. the packing was a bit average for a machien that costs this, you should take a bit more effort... Forutantly it appears that everything arrived ok, without any issues.. apart from there being no user-manuals. Marc supplied that quickly..
4 October.. A little later. Have deep fryed my first board in it. I'm seriously impressed by the end result.. This is good, because to be honest i'm not that impressed with the constrution of this machine.. It kind of feels like this is a 2nd prototype. Theres things about it that are just "unfinished"..
They certainly have got the process under control, but i kind of feel, "meh", why did they do this!